Yesterday, my buddy Bert “Gatchabert” Gatchalian tweeted a custom figure that was supposed to be a secret for the upcoming Red Carpet Kaiju show at TAG. I’m glad he decided to reveal it, as in my opinion, it’s one of the show’s early standout figures (in a stellar all-star lineup), and I’ve been thinking about it since he showed it to me.

If this figure looks familiar, you may recognize it as Robin the Mad Boy/Nazi Boy by Zollmen, previously explored in “When Custom Toys Get Controversial“. With this custom, Bert one-ups the controversy by giving a Nazi production toy a custom Prop 8 makeover. What am I talking about? I’ll let Bert tell you:

The news about Prop 8 being unconstitutional [came out], and then some idiot says that gay marriage is still not allowed. I won’t really get into it, but the look on the Nazi Boy’s face seemed appropriate for the whole issue and so I turned this guy into something else. I filed down the swastika…and sprayed the whole thing black. [I] placed down some silver accents and some pink and fluorescent pink details and finished him off with a coat of pearl finish to give him some glitter. Joy Boy was born. Joy Boy doesn’t care for Prop 8 and wants to just go around spreading love to all in his glittery outfit. He still wears the helmet to keep his head safe…cause all guys need to wear helmets from time to time.

Bert’s right, you know. The pink helmet in this custom is a fitting double entendre for safer sex, especially when viewing the figure’s head from behind. The name “Joy Boy” is also subject to multiple interpretations. In this context, “joy” can be read as “gay,” and/or as an allusion to Joy Division, a term for the group of Jewish women forced to work as prostitutes in Nazi Concentration camps. The name was later picked up by seminal post-punk band Joy Division, whose singer committed suicide 1980. Joy Boy’s all-black attire references the legions of goths left behind in Ian Curtis’ wake…

Zollmen makes some really madcap toys, and Gatchabert’s take on Nazi Boy really delivers on the original figure’s rather vague politics. Anybody who’s been following Prop 8 has undoubtedly mirrored Joy Boy’s exasperated expression. According to the artist, though, JB is a peaceful fellow. Quoth Bert: “Don’t run Nazi Boy, Joy Boy just wants to hug you.” Overall, an awesome job from concept to completion. I love a toy that makes a statement. Keep making them, and I’ll keep writing about ‘em!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Born as Fittan Pölzl in the Austrian village of Spital, Weitra, she was the mother of Adolf Hitler and daughter of Johanna Hiedler. Either her grandfather Johann Nepomuk Hiedler or his brother were also likely to be Alois' biological father. Moreover, Johann was her future husband's step-uncle. Even after they were married Klara still called her husband, Alois "Uncle". She first came to work for Alois at the age of 16 as a housekeeper. After the death of his second wife, Alois and Klara were married on 7 January 1885 during a brief wedding held early in the morning at Hitler's rented rooms on the top floor of the Pommer Inn in Braunau, before Alois went to work for the day. Four months later, their first son Gustav was born on 15 May 1885. Ida followed on 23 September 1886. Both infants died of diphtheria during the winter of 1886-1887. A third child, Otto, was born and died in 1887. Adolf was born 20 April 1889, followed by Edmund on 24 March 1894 and Paula on 21 January 1896. Edmund died of measles on 28 February 1900, at the age of five. Klara's adult life was devoted to keeping house and raising children, for which, according to Smith, Alois had limited interest. Only two of Klara's children, Adolf and Paula, survived childhood. Alice Miller writes of their family life: "The family structure could well be characterized as the prototype of a totalitarian regime. Its sole, undisputed, often brutal ruler is the father. The wife and children are totally subservient to his will, his moods, and his whims; they must accept humiliation and injustice unquestioningly and gratefully. Obedience is their primary rule of conduct." Klara Hitler was a devout Roman Catholic and attended church regularly with her children. When her husband died in 1903, he left her a government pension along with some property. As a result she was adequately provided for financially, as were her children. However, four years after the death of her husband, Klara died from iodoform poisoning from the treatment of breast cancer, aged 47, in Linz, Austria, with her children, Adolf and Paula, at her side. She is buried in Leonding near Linz. Adolf Hitler had a close relationship with her, and was devastated by her death; he would carry the grief at her passing with him for the rest of his life. Hitler's gratitude to her Jewish doctor, Eduard Bloch, for his efforts to help his mother later led him to allow Bloch and his wife to emigrate in 1940 from Austria to the United States.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Pastry chef Manfred Klaschka says 'If someone orders it, I make it.'; Holocaust survivors' group says this is exactly the sort of thinking that 'led us into the disaster 70 years ago.'

By News Agencies From Haaretz
An Austrian pastry maker faces a criminal investigation for baking cakes with elaborate Nazi designs, a concentration camp survivors' group said after pressing charges on Tuesday.

The Mauthausen Committee says the bakery, located in the village of Maria
Enzersdorf near Vienna, offers cakes adorned with a sugary swastika or with a baby raising its right hand in a Nazi salute, pictures in his catalogue show. Pastry chef Manfred Klaschka told broadcaster ORF at his cafe said "If someone orders it, I make it." Willi Mernyi, the chairman of the survivors' group Mauthausen Committee said in response that "this is exactly the sort of thinking led us into the disaster 70 years ago." The group pressed charges on suspicion that the chef violated laws that ban neo-Nazi activities and the display of Nazi symbols. Austrian law bans the glorification of the Nazi era and attempts to diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. The Holocaust awareness group asked Austrian prosecutors to press charges against the pastry shop, and Erich Habitzl, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Wiener Neustadt, confirmed receipt of the group's request Tuesday but said it was too
early to comment.

Daily Hiter's note. Notice at the top it says, "the disaster 70 years ago". If Germany had won the war, would they be saying it was a disaster?

Monday, April 4, 2011

Okay, so this is 1968. 23 years after the war. Kids can wear this helmet AND it can be advertised on TV. Today, it's 2011, somehow this is MORE offensive now than it was then. Explain this to me. GOOD GUYS WEAR IT. SO CAN YOU!!!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Hipster Hitler is actually pretty funny. Although it's pretty interesting to see how "un-hip" hipster is at this point, 13 years into the "trend". That's good though, it's time for something new & we all know what that is right?

Monday, March 7, 2011

From the Swastika Blog.
This message From Erik about the foto i got: "Hi from Sweden! Sending a contribution of swastika in swedish traditional food. This is a picture of a traditional swedish Yuletide
(christmas) bread. This bread is baked symbolising the revolving of the solar year and
celebrating midwinter and the return of the sun. This celebration stems from prechristian times when Sweden had traditional religion that was polytheistic. The shape of this bread is named GULLVAGN meaning wagon of gold or goldwagon. It is a type of sunwheel. The type of bread is called LUSSEKATT, is baked with saffron for taste and yellow colour. It comes in many other shapes as well, but this is one of the more common ones."

Friday, March 4, 2011

In yet another example of the Anti-Defamation League's bizarre obsession with the Swastika, Nintendo has agreed to withdraw a Pokemon Trading card that bears a clock wise swastika. The Jewish Lobby declared that the card shows "insensativity to the feeling of Jews". All The ADL has succeeded in doing is furthering the exposure of the Swastika. As a result of the ADL action, the Swastika Pokemon Card will be most highly sought after card in America. Every child will want the banned card for their collection. In all probability, the symbol on the card would have gone unnoticed by most children. Now a whole generation of our nations youth will be made aware of the swastika. Expect the swastika to show up on notebooks and desks at a school near you. In trying to supress a harmless symbol, the ADL has once again increased the allure and interest in Humanities oldest symbol. I guess we should say, thanks ADL, for aiding us in our mission to increase awareness of this Holy Symbol.From HERE.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Police question designer over alleged racist remarks as fresh video footage shows quarrel with two women From the Guardian by Kim Wellwisher

John Galliano has spent more than five hours at a French police station being questioned about an alleged drunken rant in a Paris bar, in which he was said to have hurled racist and antisemitic abuse. His future as creative director of Christian Dior looked increasingly doubtful as video footage emerged of an apparently separate incident in which he is seen saying: "I love Hitler". Galliano, 50, wearing a large-brimmed black hat over his trademark bandana, arrived at the police station in the central 3rd arrondissement of Paris where he came face to face with the couple he is accused of accosting at La Perle bar in the chic Marais district last Thursday. The couple, a Jewish woman and her Asian boyfriend, told French radio Europe 1 the British designer had told them: "Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead" and "fucking Asian bastard, I will kill you". After last week's incident Galliano's lawyer, Stéphane Zerbib, said the designer was lodging a police complaint against the couple for "defamation, insults, threats and aggression". "This man and woman were aggressive to Galliano, mocking the way he looked. My client was insulted first and never made antisemitic remarks." The designer has denied making racist or antisemitic comments. A second woman came forward at the weekend claiming a separate incident took place in the same bar in October. A police source told Le Parisien the 48-year-old was at first "surprised by John Galliano's attitude and the fact he had a go at her apparently without any reason". "She said the designer was in a drunken state. She is sure about the nature of the insults because she speaks and understands English well," the source added. The woman told officers that at the time she had not complained to police because she blamed the outburst on the fact the designer had been drinking. Video footage posted on the Sun's website shows Galliano apparently arguing with two women in La Perle. A woman can be heard asking the designer: "Are you blond with blue eyes?" He replies: "No, but I love Hitler and people like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed." Neither of the women is Jewish. Zerbib said he "questioned the opportunism" of the new complaint. "When you are a victim of antisemitic or racist remarks, you do not wait four months (to lodge a complaint)," he told Reuters. "What matters isn't what's on the internet, what matters is the testimony and the hearing," he added. Galliano is due to present his autumn-winter collection for Dior this Friday and his own collection on Sunday. The haute couture fashion house, which has suspended the designer, has not said whether the show will go ahead. It stressed it has a "zero-tolerance" policy towards any racist or antisemitic behaviour. Muriel Piaser, head of Paris's biannual fashion trade show, said Dior was in a difficult position: "I think the situation is not tenable for Dior," she said "Dior sells everywhere around the world. Fashion sells dreams but it also involves respecting certain ethical codes." The flamboyant Galliano, 50, the Gibraltar-born son of a British plumber and a Spanish mother, has lived in Paris for 20 years. With his trademark moustache and ostentatious outfits he is a familiar figure in the Marais, the traditional Jewish area of Paris, now home to fashionable bars and a large gay community.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Artist: Charles Krafft.
Title: ForgivenessTM Perfume Bottle.
Year: 2001.
Etched Czech crystal.
Collection of the artist – inquiries welcome.
Glad to see that the UNPOP ART website is back in action. That's where I pulled this wonderful piece by Charles Krafft from. In addition, Charles Krafft interview to be published in the first issue of GOBLINKO's new magazine PORK coming this March!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Looking for the Buddhist temple? Just follow the swastika. The USA has a Jewish population of 5,275,000 in a country of 296,410,404 according to the Jewish Virtual Library. This makes the Jewish population at about 6%. I figure that these people will be the most difficult to convince that they swastika is not evil, however, as a propaganda enemy, the NAZIs have been blown out of proportion in the public mind, so that they are not just a historical enemy, but the pure embodiment of evil on earth. I have decided that the swastika is a purely benevolent symbol & its negation in the west is actually an act of occult warfare against good. Genocide is already illegal, it is illegal to beat people up in the streets, it is illegal to discriminate against others based on their race, religion & all that stuff, so society already is set up to protect people from what they think that the swastika represents.

Friday, February 25, 2011

In Buddhism the Swastika is a symbol of the Buddha, when used in other contexts in a Buddhist Country the Swastika represents either of or relating to Buddhism and/or something that is conducive to Buddhist Morals, such as when seen on this Ramen package, it means that it is all Vegetarian, in accordance with Ahimsa, the practice of "doing No Harm to Animals and others" and thereby to not accumulate the negative Karma that is gained by doing such evil acts as killing for food.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Just so you know, another goal of the Daily Hitler, outside of exploring Hitler & the NAZIs are pop culture characters, is the liberation of the swastika. Yes it is instantly recognizable to Westerners as the NAZI symbol, however, the NAZIs are a small blip on the historical map compared to the swastika's use in religions like Hiduism, Buddhism & Jainism & as a symbol of luck & good fortune in pretty much every culture. Even as the NAZIs used the swastika, it didn't stand for "hate" or "evil", it stood for the idea that the Aryans came from India & were thus represented by this very Indian symbol, which they decided was the symbol of the German race.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A young protester chants slogans in front of a banner with images of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak during a sit-in organised by hundreds of Lebanese activists in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, 29 January 2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

Here's from Carlsberg's website about the use of the swastika in their marketing.
"When JC and Carl Jacobsen agreed to name their breweries Old Carlsberg and New Carlsberg respectively, they also decided to use a different label design for their beer brands. – JC was using the 12-pointed star and Carl Jacobsen who was fascinated by the Antiquity chose the swastika with four dots as his trade mark. The swastika is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and widely spread throughout the ancient and modern world. The symbol was in use until World War II."
One of my personal missions is to allow for the swastika to exist in the Western public mind as the "lucky pinwheel" again. I seem to remember my dad drinking Carlsberg elephant beer when I was a kid.